David J. Marks Woodworking School

06/23/2026

The Elio Drive is a great way to handle uneven surfaces like this branch of English Boxwood.
It’s a number 2 Morse Taper which mounts in the headstock and it has a center point which is adjustable and the other two points on the left and right are adjustable also.
They have Allen head drive screws so you can get in there with an Allen head wrench to tighten them to your tolerances.

06/13/2026

My Christmas Present to myself arrived early yesterday and I am very excited about it! I have been in communication for a while with a friend in the UK.
Huw Crompton shipped 6 branches of English Boxwood to me and I am very glad to have them! I plan to use them for turning boxes/containers with hand chased threads. Thank you very much Huw!!

06/13/2026

Here's the final video of three that Jaime Rivera shot and edited from my presentation on Gilding and Patinas. This is from a lecture and demonstration that I did for the Sonoma County Woodworkers Association last month on May 5th.
It's a little over 10 mins and touches on subjects like sandblasting to add texture to the surface. There are also some humorous stories in there. I like to have fun when I teach. The beginning and ending shows a collection of my work,some of which are pieces that are quite impressive if I do say so myself! There will be a new video next week so look for that one.
Thanks for watching and please give Jaime's channel a thumbs up! We need to support the Arts,Music and good vibes of Wine Country!

Sonoma County Woodworkers Association demonstration on gilding with...

06/09/2026

Jordan Ryan took my advice and selected some pieces from my Olivewood collection to turn his canister style box/container with a lid for his project in my group class. I milled this Olivewood into slabs back in 2013 and it's dry. Olivewood is one of my favorites but it does tend to crack so my solution has been to mix black powdered pigment into epoxy and use it to fill the cracks. Sometimes as you turn it,more cracks appear which can be very frustrating. I really like the Starbond black medium viscosity CA glue for filling these small final cracks. It seeps in and then we use their accelerator sprayed on to cured it within minutes. It hardens fast so that it can be sanded flush with the surface. Jordan might have been cursing me, haha, but if he was he hid it well and continued to be a good sport and stay on course. For the lid,I suggested a simple friction fit which he successfully turned by cutting a rabbet or recess on the inside of the lid. Negative rake scrapers were the tools that he used to clean up the inside and bottom of the box,followed up by sanding.
He also reverse mounted it on a jam chuck and used the point tool to add some grooves defining the bottom. I think his canister box turned out great and looks like marble! I really like it. He was also able to finish his bowl from a few days earlier in his private class. A round of applause to my friend Jordan!

06/09/2026

Paul Rothaus selected a nice piece of dry Sycamore for his bowl and he wanted to work on an undercut rim. After roughing out the shape and turning a tenon, he reversed the bowl and began to work on hollowing the inside with a bowl gouge. As he got to the rim area, I offered him several different tools and added that the quickest and best bet that I would use is the Pro Easy wood tool Hollower because the curved bar (Swan Neck) gets right up to the inside of the rim. I also have Hunter carbide tools which can be rotated for more of a shear scrape but since the sycamore cuts so cleanly, the Easy wood hollower worked well. He had wanted to try adding something to the outside which would be clean and elegant and he decided to use the point tool for some clean grooves defining a band. After reversing again,he used a jam chuck to hold the bowl in place and turn the bottom. Paul added two V grooves for definition using a point tool. The small nub was carved away when he used my Foredom rotary tool with a round carbide burr. Paul did a fine job sanding and applied a hand rubbed oil finish using Arm-R-Seal. He was very happy with the results. He also had enough time to start on a second piece with an unusual design.
He liked the figure in some of the Bocote wood that I had and glued it onto a piece of Wenge which will create a black rim after being hollowed. In order to maximize the full 2 inches of the Bocote,we glued on a "waste block" so that the tenon could be turned in it. Paul took it home to complete it and I look forward to seeing the finished bowl.

06/08/2026

Stefan Benton worked diligently on his box. It was a challenge turning this very dense but beautiful Pernambuco wood and as his teacher I was there to help when he needed it. He painstakingly shaved off material a little bit at a time to get the grains to match up when the lid was closed.
To finish it off he turned the top into a dome and decided to add some beads and a cove cut for details and places to grip.
The African Blackwood that he turned for the collar added a dramatic contrast and he asked me to demo the "Dennis Stewart chatter tool" that I bought 20 years ago on it. I don't think they are available anymore. It leaves a great texture pattern after you sharpen the bevels and turn the speed up. I added some V grooves on either side to make it stand out. Congrats to Stefan for hanging in there and doing a very fine job with a very difficult project!

06/08/2026

I'm very impressed with how nice Theresa Rothaus's lidded box turned out!
She chose Richard Raffan's lidded box design that he turned here as a demo piece back in 2012. I showed her a branch of Sycamore that I had band sawed in half and was ten years dry and she selected that for her project.
She added her own design ideas for the shape of the box and lid and did a great job turning it!
I suggested a Betel Nut for the top handle and Theresa turned a dowel at the top of the lid to join it.
We all agreed that the completed lidded box is awesome and she thanked me for how much she had learned. A good time was had by all!

06/07/2026

The lessons went well yesterday as everyone continued to watch,learn and practice. Stefan decided to turn a box from Pernambuco and I was asked to demonstrate how I hand chase threads. I usually chase them in African Blackwood or Olivewood but I decided to try it in Pernambuco. The wood is very dense and brittle so I applied thin CA glue to stabilize them. Stefan liked the idea of adding an African Blackwood collar which contrasts nicely with the reddish orange color of the Pernambuco.

06/06/2026

We had a good first day of class yesterday. We discussed designs and woods, went over tools and sharpening and got started on projects. Mats Fogelvik Furniture announced that his favorite wood was "Other" and it turned out that Stefan Benton liked the "Other" wood too. Let's see if someone else besides Tom Ribbecke Arch Top Course Page knows the name of the "other" wood. Hint, the color is reddish orange.

06/06/2026

This table has a collection of wood for my students to choose from.
It will be interesting to see what they turn from it.
It’s all dry and includes Sycamore, Olivewood, Walnut,Bocote and others.